Bloomberg reported that Elon Musk has sold another $1.02 billion worth of Tesla Inc. stock, bringing him closer to his goal of selling a 10% interest in the electric carmaker.
According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is also the world’s richest person, sold 934,090 shares.
Since asking his Twitter followers in November if he should sell part of his Tesla stock, Musk has been dumping shares. Musk indicated last week in a tweet that he was “nearly done” reducing his Tesla stake by 10%.
Musk’s total stock sales now stand at 15.6 million shares, valued at around $16.4 billion. To sell 10% of his stock, he’d have to sell nearly 17 million shares, assuming his promise doesn’t include exercisable options.
Corporate insiders (including CEOs) can trade their own stock as part of a pre-announced portfolio management plan under 10b5-1 guidelines. To protect themselves from later accu, they must indicate when and how they plan to trade in advance.
Tesla’s stock has increased by more than 54% this year, making Musk the world’s wealthiest person. Forbes estimates that his net wealth has risen to almost $275 billion.
Musk’s fortune stems from his ownership shares in Tesla and SpaceX. He now does not get a salary or financial bonuses, and until last year, he had not sold a big amount of Tesla shares. Instead, he had taken out large loans secured by a portion of his Tesla stock.
During a slew of December press engagements, the multibillionaire highlighted his fortune and tax approach, including interviews with the Financial Times and Time Magazine after both publications awarded him Person of the Year for 2021.
According to some calculations by CNBC, Musk still needs to sell more than a million shares to hit his 10% November objective of about 17 million shares. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment or additional information on the overall number of shares he wants to sell in order to meet his objective.